Rejoinder
by titan scientist
Summary: Edward has found a way through the gate, back to Amestris. Well, sort of. [EdWin]


**Okay, so...I'm sorry XD To all of you who are, so VERY very patiently waiting on my other fics, I sincerely apologize. They WILL be finished. I swear to the Creator. I just...**

**The FMA feels hit me like a train, and my inspiration for SnK fics was pushed to the side. So, for the time being, this will be my primary focus.**

**Now, if you've never seen me before (chances are, you haven't XD), welcome to this fic :) It's going to be mostly EdWin, while I'm thinking up some things for Al to get in on, romance-wise. I'm thinking it'll be about 15-20 chapters. Depends on how I play this out, since I'm kind of making it up as I go along. That's how I do a lot of things XD So, without further ado, I give you _Rejoinder: The Prologue._**

**Hopefully I explained the situation well enough to avoid questions about the setting, etc.**

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><p>The sound of cold, heavy rain on thick canvas made a soft background noise as golden eyes gazed dully into the heaps of people roaming the streets, despite the weather. Some were bustling towards their job - a damn lucky and very <em>small<em> amount, mind. Some were slinking through the torrents towards their homes, if they had any, and some were wandering - homeless. All of these people, including Ed, had a common interest.

Hunting for work.

The Great Depression, as the politicians were calling it, had hit so hard and so suddenly, Edward and his brother had been practically swept away in it's dark, filthy waters. Fitting, since they had only _just _moved to America. An absolutely _magical_ way to start off in a new country. Admittedly, he and Al had probably, though subconsciously, seen something of the sort coming. However, the familiar faces and the death of Alfons had tainted Europe for Ed. He never wanted to see it again.

Upon arriving in the Land of Oppurtunity, the brothers had used their meager pool of money - translated from their even smaller pool of euros in Europe - to rent a small apartment at the edge of the great city of New York, New York. It had been a glorious shift in scenery and faces that had almost satisfied the Elrics' seemingly eternal wanderlust, and their adoptive city had welcomed them with open arms.

Somehow, though, Edward hadn't been able to shake his thoughts of the rolling green hills and warm summer days back in his real home - Resembool. Alphonse told him, as it happened to both of them, that he supposed they would never stop longing for home, for Resembool. They could only try and love their new home as intensly as their first.

Try, at least.

Ed had his brother, and that's all that should have mattered to him; however, being the greedy bastard he was, he wanted Amestris just as badly.

A gigantic gust of wind that slapped the blond's cheeks with wrenching force drug Edward out of his sentimentality and back to the predicament at hand - his joblessness. Alphonse was counting on his success (how fresh), and he had yet to even begin.

The younger Elric wasn't able to work yet, since the effects of the suit of armor still made him look about sixteen. Sure it was old enough to get a job, but most people those days were looking for more experienced people. Alphonse's inexperienced air and appearance would be crushed under the masses of unemployed adults.

The weather had been fair enough when Ed had set out on his quest, even slightly warm. But, as the minutes had worn on, his ports had begun to ache and the huge shower hit like mustard gas in a trench. The blond had since taken shelter under various shop entrances, and, as a result, not gotten any hunting done. He was going to try and wait it out, but it seemed that the storm would not be letting up any time in the near future.

There was no job hunting in that weather, no matter how much Ed hated giving up.

Reluctantly, Ed stood up from the tiny, wrought iron bench he had been sitting on and ruffled his coat to get some warmer body heat circulating. Thankfully, he had gotten used to covering up his automail in the heavy coats, even in relatively fair weather, so he wasn't exactly cold. The only thing was the aching in his ports. Nonchalantly, the blond rubbed his shoulder before venturing out into the torrent, his breath's making little puffs of vapor as he flitted along the busy sidewalks, towards the apartment where his little brother was waiting for him.

Despite the situation, despite the cold water seeping through his clothes and the aching in his ports, despite his empty-handedness, Ed couldn't suppress a smile as he headed back to Alphonse. His home.

It took him another of half hour of rainy misery to reach their old, peeling front door. With cold, numb flesh fingers, Edward fished the little bronze key from his coat's deep pockets. It took a few second to jam it into the little lock and turn it's rusting gears, and the hinges on the door creaked complainatively when Ed finally swung the door open with his usual force, the little rubber stopper on the wall behind the swinging door taking most of the impact.

"Home, Al." He called into the dimly-lit den, letting the door close by itself as a result of rebound. Shrugging his heavy, now-dark coat off onto the floor, the blond kicked off his shoes in the process, trudging out of the little entryway with ginger steps. Being indoors helped the ports some, but not enough to dull the pain.

"You there, Al?" Usually the younger Elric had an immediate answer.

The sound of various things falling - most likely books - distantly sounded within the thin walls, and a rather flustered "Yea!" answered the older Elric's call. A small, interested smirk crept onto Ed's face as he flopped onto the scruffy old sofa that was placed rather nonchalantly in the front of the den, letting out an almost inaudible sigh as the pressure was taken off of his leg. In fact, he was about to doze off when the soft pounding of sock-clad feet came his way, causing Ed's senses to come awake again.

Cracking a smoldering, golden eye open, the blond caught Alphonse shuffling into the den with a tower of - guessed it - heavy, worn books. Ed could smell them from where he lounged, and it briefly made his mind flit back to the huge libraries he and Al used to go to, back when the search for the Stone of legend was all he thought about, day and night. The weight of these memories seemed to make him sink even further into the sofa.

However, Al, being his usual self, was full of a positive energy as he moved busily around the small stack of tomes that were set on the small coffee table. "So, how'd it go?" Gray eyes flicked inquisitively up to the half-asleep Elric's face.

A small mumble.

"What?"

"Too much weather. Couldn't get around."

Al's brow creased in a mixture of sympathy and worry, a common expression directed at his brother. However, he didn't ask about the automail. He knew that it would just turn the mood sour, even though said mood change was inevitable. A few more minutes of only slightly uncomfortable silence continued before Al brought up anything else.

"So, Brother...I know...that you said you don't want to build rockets or anything like that anymore, but...I think that if I were to go to school, here, and get a degree in chemistry for rocketry, I could really bring in some cash for us." Al looked at his brother, and knit his brow, "Ed?"

If anything had ever come between the brothers, it would have been the three years that Edward spent with Alfons Heidrich. And right then, Ed couldn't think of anything but that period of separation. That period of his life that Alphonse, the one person who he could trust with his life and the universe, would never fully understand. And right then, all Ed could think about was that boy that had been like a second brother to him - the one who had been shot, moments after Ed retreated like a coward into his own world for the last time. The crimson circle staining Alfons's shirt upon his return, and how that dead body, that cold, dead body had once been a living, breathing person with dreams and ambitions and...

"No, Al, please...no rockets.."

With a finality in his voice, Ed slowly leaned forward on the sofa and folded his hands - real and metal - together, his long bangs shielding his eyes.

"Brother.."

It was too often that their conversations ended with Ed walking away. The brothers used to be so close, but ever since their return to the other side of the gate, things had been different. The unbridgeable, three-year gap had left its scar.

Slinking into the kitchenette, Ed looked lazily across the small counters for some food. However, the only thing visible was a little slip of paper, about the size of his hand, sitting forlornly in the middle of the counter. On it were various groceries, and, to Ed, an opportunity to go cool his head.

Snatching the paper from the counter, the blond moved with more conviction towards the front door again, Al's gray eyes following him the whole way. Edward tried not to wince as his leg ached when he bent over to retrieve his still-soaked coat. It was cold and heavy when he put it on.

"Brother, where are you going?"

He slipped on his shoes with an inaudible squelch.

"Listen, I'm sorry about the whole thing, I just-"

"Feels like the weather's letting up. I'll be at the market." Ed waved the little list in the air for effect. Nothing was wrong. Nothing. Just had to cool his head.

"Ed-"

The door closed behind the older Elric with a silencing thud. Outside, Ed felt his chest clench and a lump form in his throat. He hadn't wanted to leave like that, he knew. However, avoiding a fight with his younger brother had seemed a better option than the alternative. There was already so much distance now, and Ed physically hurt because of it. His automail hand squeezed the list so tightly that the bearings groaned, but all that served to do was remind him of a certain blond mechanic that he could never see again.

Inside, a small sigh escaped Alphonse as he turned back to his books on the little table, flipping the worn cover and diving, rather unenthused, into the world of rocketry.

.

.

.

.

Winry stopped in her tracks, her hands freezing in their motion of washing the grease off of her hands. The air around her electrified, reminding her of only one thing that could make the air feel so alive with energy. Alchemy. Or, more exactly, Ed and Al's alchemy.

No sooner was the thought in her mind than a flash of etherial blue, electrical light flashed onto her kitchen counter, leaving in it's wake a slightly dissolved slip of paper - a little bigger than her hand - with writing in another language that she had never seen before.

Strangely enough, the penmanship was familiar.

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><p><strong>So, this is definitely shorter than the chapters will be, but hey, it's a prologue.<strong>

**Hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to drop in a review if you did :)**

**Until next chapter!**


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